Subscriptions to the FT.com now number more than 300,000, up 31% from the first half of 2011. Corporate licenses grew at an even faster rate, up 40% to 2,300. Registered users at the FT.com, the bulk of whom are not subscribers, have increased 29% to 4.8 million. (The FT put up a metered paywall in 2009, allowing non-subscribers to read up to 10 eight articles for free per month.) A little more than 2 million people visit the FT online on an average day, 25% of whom access it from a mobile device. The FT's web app -- the publication pulled its native app for iOS from the App Store last summer because it couldn't get the subscriber data it wanted from Apple -- now has 2.7 million users.
Online advertising revenues continued to grow, but wasn't enough to offset declines in other advertising categories. "Advertising demand remains volatile and visibility poor," Pearson PLC said in a statement.
Meanwhile, digital subscriptions at The New York Times have surpassed the half-million mark, The New York Times Co. announced in its second-quarter earnings report Thursday.